Hello to all, I'm in the middle of building a small world of my own, or at least a small corner of it and wanted to know if you minded if I ran some ideas past the Guild. I know it's direclt map related and so i'm prefectly fine with this thread being deleted.

My idea directly relates to currency and trade and wanted to know whether my concept would create a society that is sustainable or not. The Dal people are at a stage in society similiar to medieval japan or pre-rennosciance europe (whichever was more advanced, my history of ancient times is a little limited), their technology has developed far enough that all the needs of their society are met and that new developments and inventions are slow as there is no real need for them at the current time. In Dal society an item's/object's worth is determined by it's practical value rather than a form of monetary (check spelling) value. So steel would have more value than gold as, even though the gold is rarer and desireable in most cultures, it has more practical uses e.g. if you're looking to outfit an army or a labour crew your not going to give them golden equipment with is heavy but soft when you can give them steel or iron equipment which is more readily available and more durable; gold is still are nice commidty amogst the high nobility who can afford it. So in Dal culture the more common raw materials, including food, have more worth. Trade in such goods is governed by weight, the goods are divided into units (each unit is about 20 pounds) and units are traded on a like-like basis, so 20 units of rice would get you 20 units of wood and so on. Haggling is a common practice as traders try to get more for their goods by bringing aspects like quality, work required to get the goods, importance and immediate practical use of the goods and so forth. So far my society can trade and deal without a currency system.

However this where I hit a snag, the whole trade of material and goods without money works well amonsgt people whose proffesional would actually bring them into a supply of such stuff but it does no good for people who have other professions like soldiers, labourers or house servants. So, in this case some form of currency would be required. I decided to go with a form of commodity currency instead of fiat currency as the Dal would lean towards having a form of currency that actually has some value, a farmer won't trade in his crop for some paper bills. The form of a currency in this case are small bags of rice or small coins made of iron or bags of iron sand, both are common in Dal society and have the most practical use, the rice can be eaten and the iron can be melted down into other objects. A emplyer would pay their employees in this form of currency, how much excatly depends on the job and is often negotiated before employment in the lower class. Employers can also be payed in food and shelter. Items can be bought with this currency by trading an equal weight of currency for the desired goods, so a sword would be really expensive while a new shirt might not be so expensive. Non-item services can be bought in this manner for a negotiated cost, or if possible services can payed in other services. Again, haggling is the norm.

So in Dal society, when dealing with large amounts of material and goods the unit system is used and when dealing with smaller goods or services the commidity currency is used. Trade offices are also located in each settlement with substantial trade activity to regulate these dealings and to help people convert raw goods into commodity currency and vica-versa. Would such a system seem feasible?


-D-